Sophie Rivers thinks she’s fallen on her feet when a temporary research post takes her to George Muntz College, just yards from her Birmingham home. Her new employer offers pleasant, even lavish, facilities and state-of-the-art equipment. Perhaps, though, all is not as comfortable as it seems, as Melina, a computer technician, may have been about to explain. For once Sophie doesn’t have time to listen. But when Melina is found dead, it’s soon clear that other people are keen to hear what Sophie herself has to say - both her home and her college office are bugged. There are any number of suspects. There’s the elusive Principal; Melina’s former colleague Dr Trevelyan, rapidly confined to a psychiatric ward; and Richard Fairfax, the powerful property tycoon who enters Sophie’s life. Then there’s the fact that the College seems to lack only one thing: students.